day : 25/03/2009 9 results

The beauty of books: Donations from, and for, local students

First, the donations FROM students. Above are Erika and Julia Guerette, posing with boxes of books explained in this official announcement about their achievement:

Want to read the classic West Side Story? Or last year’s hit Twilight? How about a John Grisham novel or one of the books from the children’s series Arthur? If so, you find these and 400 more books in five boxes headed to Alaska, thanks to the generosity of students and staff from Holy Names Academy and Our Lady of Guadalupe School. For the fourth year now, Julia (right in photo) and Erika Guerette (left) have been collecting books from schoolmates and sending them north to villages smaller than their schools. Many of the villages have a population of less than 200 people and are located in the remote parts of the state along the famed Iditarod Trail. Julia and Erika’s goal is simple. Books open doors that lead out of the rugged isolation kids their age face in the rural Alaskan villages where teen suicide is higher than the national average. Julia is a freshman at Holy Names Academy and Erika is an eighth grader at Our Lady of Guadalupe School. She’ll be joining her sister at Holy Names next year. The 2009 book drive put their running book count for the past four years close to 2,000 books.

Now, on to donations you can make for a local preschool – by buying books for yourself!

That’s a photo from last night’s story time at Barnes and Noble-Westwood Village, in honor of the Arbor Heights Co-op Preschool< BookFair, which continues one more day – buy anything through tomorrow at any B&N and mention this code: 497941.

West Seattle sweeps Parks & Rec Youth Basketball Championships!

Speedy Demons: Standing left to right: Coach Sonya Elliott, Julia Nark, Kelsey Klapperich, Anna Carlson-Ziegver, Abby Tuthill, and Coach Jason Elliott. Kneeling left to right: Charli Elliott, Ali Campagnaro, Sami MacKenzie, Annalisa Ursino, and Sarah Cooper. Not pictured: Allyson Ylvisaker

Knights: Standing left to right: Coach Todd Stordahl, Alex MacKenzie, Michael Sasonoff, Parker Diller, Diego Rangel, Mike Dennehy, Carter Mensing, Coach John MacKenzie, and Kevin Stordahl. Kneeling left to right: Casey Lenzie, AJ Lingg, Dylan Jergens, Emmett Abdian, and Joey Meucci
The “sweep” headline comes from John MacKenzie, along with the photos you see above, and the story about the newly crowned champs:

The Girls U-12 Silver division Hiawatha Speedy Demons and the Boys U-12 Silver division Alki Knights brought home back to back championships at Miller Community Center last Sunday.

The Speedy Demons played at 11 AM against a tough and determined Yesler team but came out ahead with a gritty 21-18 victory to finish the season undefeated. The hard-fought battle included 2 players from Hiawatha fouling out in the 4th quarter.

The boys followed at 12:30 PM and finished off a pesky Meadowbrook team with a 6-0 run late in the 4th quarter giving them a 40-33 victory. Vashon Island gave Alki their only 2 defeats of the season but Alki got revenge by beating them in the semi-finals to advance to the championship game.

Both teams used incredible teamwork and perseverance. Each player understood their role and made a valuable contribution to their victory. All the hard work and practice paid off for the 2 West Seattle teams.

Congratulations to both teams!

West Seattle Crime Watch: Three stories to share

First: From seattlepi.com – Six people have been indicted in connection with a prostitution ring, and they allegedly are affiliated with what’s described as a West Seattle-based gang. Read the story here.

Second, Derek P sent this photo, and the report that follows:

Just another FYI for West Seattle residents who believe that they may live on a quiet street. I returned back from work today passing my girlfriend’s vehicle parallel parked at SW Raymond St. & 30th Ave SW [map] What do I find? Gold paint running along the bottom of the drivers side (see photo). Reported to the SPD. No witnesses. Her vehicle happened to be one of two parked along the street at the time (4:30pm). Fortunately, the paint was still somewhat soft so I managed to remove most of it with some bug / tar remover plus some elbow grease. At first I assumed it was spray paint but I’m not so sure. I will probably go back out later to ask neighbors who may have been parked on the street earlier to see if their cars were hit.

Finally, Susan in Upper Fauntleroy sent this after reading about the stolen Buddha on Alki earlier this week:

Within the past week we had a large (4 foot) carving of a fisherman with a large fish stolen from our front poarch. I would love to get it back, it was rather unique, but I don’t have much hope. However, I wanted to let you know because there may be a trend and I want others in the West Seattle community to learn from our experience.

Wanted by West Seattle church: Anyone have a donkey to loan?

Thanks to Diane for spotting this on the West Seattle-sorted CL listings that cycle through the WSB More page: A West Seattle church, looking for a donkey for Palm Sunday. We sent a note to the blind-box e-mail address to find out which church: It’s St. John the Baptist Episcopal, next to West Seattle High School – which in fact offered a well-attended “Blessing of the Animals” last October.

Delridge-area problem properties: Cleanup under way on 26th

In the past week, we have brought you two updates on Delridge-area problem properties (here and here), focused in particular on one vacant house at the far north end of Delridge, but also discussing a wider problem – junk and trash piling up outside some, transient/squatter problems at others. Today, we got word (thanks, Lisa!) that a cleanup crew is at 5424 26th SW (map), which she says is a vacant house that’s had a junk problem for a long time (note the photos above and below). The city-worker crew that’s there would tell us only that it’s a court-ordered cleanup; crossreferencing the parcel number in King County’s online-records system didn’t turn up that kind of court order, nor did any recent violation notices show up on the city website (though as a commenter discovered, it looks like one of last year’s violations did just wind its way through the system), but we did find a notice that the site is to be auctioned off on April 17th (10 am, King County Administration Building downtown).

Alki Homestead’s future: An update from owner Tom Lin

After both of the stories we published here the past two days about concerns regarding the Alki Homestead‘s future (here and here), we mentioned trying to reach owner Tom Lin for his comment on his plans for the landmark restaurant, two months after the fire that closed it. Here’s what he just sent us:

It has been 2 months since the fire at Alki Homestead and I appreciate everyone’s concern as to what to do with the property. Hopefully this will provide some insight as to what is going on.

My main concern is to find a place for my employees to work. It has not been easy due to the economic condition of the market. I have looked at over several restaurants that are for sale in West Seattle and finally found one that everyone likes. I presented the letter of intent yesterday and hopefully it will work out. The employees are thrilled to have the opportunity to work together as a team again — over 10 of them. It is not going to be named Alki Homestead. However, the spirit will be kept alive until Homestead reopens.

It will be a long road ahead to restore Alki Homestead. The insurance is still in the process of getting settled. I have to say that the insurance companies I am working with are professional and extremely helpful. They have a process that they have to go through in order to settle the claim. It just takes time and they are doing the best they can.

I called my insurance adjuster yesterday and asked them to release the property. They called back immediately with permission to go ahead with a modified cleanup. I can start cleaning up the place, but I should keep the contents intact until the insurance settles. Technically, the insurance companies own the property inside the building because they are paying for it.

Where do we go from here? I have been working with my architects and Mark Fritch of Mark Fritch Log Homes. Mark sent a letter to West Seattle Herald on March 24th. I hope you will have a chance to read it. Mark is the great grandson of the original builder, Anton Borgen, who helped build Alki Homestead and Log House Museum.

I met up with the board of Log House Museum a month ago. Their position is to restore the building regardless of the “use” of the building. They believe that as long as a viable business can pay the rent, then the building is saved.

I disagree with that view. The building is the shell, but the spirit is the Alki Homestead. To bring back the building without Alki Homestead is like visiting your grandmother’s house after she passed away, kind of empty. I have owned it for 3 years. I am the one who has seen:

1, Customers celebrating their 50th anniversary because that is where they had their wedding rehearsal.
2. The Ericksons, who have been coming every Friday night for the past 27 years.
3, The couple who celebrated their 75th anniversary, and they met at the beach when they were 16 years old.

The stories go on and on.

Maybe all of you can help me preserve the spirit of the property as well as the historical use of this great site. Maybe the Log House Museum can have their annual gala at Alki Homestead Restaurant in the future, instead of holding those events at other non-historic venues, as in the past 2 years.

I believe action speaks louder than words. If you would like to help with the project, then let’s be constructive. We need to stay positive and move forward. A lot of work needs to be done. Let’s bring Alki Homestead Restaurant back and let’s make this project something we can all be proud of.

Thomas Lin

(added 1:35 pm – We’ve just spoken with Lin by phone; he won’t elaborate on which restaurant he’s looking into – the two closed restaurants that have been for sale in West Seattle for months are the former Beato and Blackbird.) He also attached a WSB-addressed version of the letter he mentioned, from Mark Fritch, a great-grandson of the builder of the Homestead and the Log House Museum – read on to see it in its entirety:Read More

Happening in West Seattle tonight: Jim Diers, “Idol,” school talks

At last year’s Sustainable West Seattle Festival (have you signed up for this year yet? 4/4’s the deadline), Jim Diers listed West Seattle – and elsewhere – examples of “Neighbor Power,” and tonight he brings that energy and evangelism to the Fauntleroy Church series about “Re-creating Community in Our Day.” It’s free at 7 pm; if you want to, you can go early and share a “simple supper” for which donations will be accepted, starting at 6 pm. Afterward, if you’re in the mood for music, “Junction Idol” is into the finals at Rocksport — one of the contenders recommended to us is Anders:

See the rest of the contestants on the Junction Idol YouTube page – then show up tonight at 9:30 to watch the finals.

CHIEF SEALTH MEETING: One other note – the Chief Sealth High School PTSA encourages Sealth parents to attend a meeting tonight, 7 pm, in the school library, to hear from principal John Boyd about how district budget challenges will affect the school.

(added 12:59 pm) PATHFINDER K-8 PTSA MEETING: Also just got word (thanks, Lashanna!) that Pathfinder K-8 has a meeting tonight too, for an update on the changes that are under way (as it prepares to move to a new location this fall) – 6:45 pm, school cafeteria.

Discolored water? Here’s what to do

Susan e-mailed from Pigeon Point to ask if anyone else is having a problem with discolored water this morning. It happens in various places at various times, so we wanted to share the Seattle Public Utilities link advising what to do if it happens to you – see it here.

West Seattle Crime Watch: Gatewood hit-run, carjacking attempt


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Bizarre “series of events,” as Officer Jeff Kappel described it, late last night in Gatewood. Here’s how Kappel, who’s with the Seattle Police media unit, tells the story: It started around 41st and SW Monroe (blue marker in map above) just after 10 pm with a report of a hit-and-run crash. The car responsible for that crash, a silver 1999 Honda Civic, went on to California/Ida, five blocks away (red marker in map above), where the woman driving that car — which turns out to have been stolen — abandoned it and tried to carjack another woman. She didn’t succeed, and ran away. Police seached the area, but as of Kappel’s official report, filed around midnight, hadn’t found her. He describes her as “an Asian female in her 20s, in a gray and red sweatsuit, wearing a whistle,” apparently around her neck. The victim of the carjacking attempt was not reported to have been hurt; no word if the would-be carjacker had a weapon. We’re checking with police this morning for any more followup on this.